Ola announced that the company was offering a new product to its users -- an electric flying car.
On April Fools' Day and social media was flooded with memes, pranks and hoaxes. Joining in the fun were several startups and companies that come up with innovative ways to tickle everyone's funnybones.
For instance, Ola co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal announced through a video message that the company was offering a new product to its users -- an electric flying car. This flying car, called Ola Air Pro, has a dedicated website that was also accepting bookings. While it was clear to many that this was an April Fools' Day hoax, some users were in two minds.
Pritish Nandy, journalist and filmmaker, said, "Fantastic is the right word for this. Unless of course, it's an April Fool day prank."
Chetan Bhagat was quick to identify the prank and wrote, "Superb, can I open the windows while up there? I'd love some fresh air. Oh, and prime play too - bina music ke mazaa nahi aayega."
Many, however, felt that the announcement was a pathbreaking scientific development.
"What is the cost of this beast? What is the logic of har family bharegi udaan? Can a common man afford this? But it's a good concept for ambulances and law enforcing agencies," another commented.
Just like Ola, Flipkart too decided to have some fun with customers by announcing that the online shopping platform would now accept Bitcoin. It is all the rage now and one cannot blame Flipkart for joining the bandwagon and accepting the cryptocurrency as payment. At least, this was what many social media users thought.
Just three hours later, Flipkart announced that it was a prank. Reacting to the tweet, Nischal, Founder, CEO of WazirXIndia: Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency Exchange in India, commented, "Obviously, an April Fool's tweet. However, what's not obvious is that Flipkart just made millions of more Indians aware and curious about Bitcoin. Thanks for helping grow the crypto ecosystem in India."
Others echoed a similar sentiment and said that this could very well be the future.
But the winner of the April Fools' Day prank fest has to be Volkswagen. The carmaker fooled the world with a press release announcing that its US operations would be changing its name to 'Voltswagen'. The name change is a result of the company moving towards the manufacture of electric vehicles, the release said.
Not many were happy with the development. "This is a bad idea. Why not just make a sub-brand called Voltswagen for low-end EVs and keep the Volkswagen name and brand. "Don't lose your identity over electrification!" a user wrote.
Following widespread reportage on the development, Volkswagen had to announce that it was just a harmless prank.